Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Pelham, NY

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Bronx, NY, 5 miles southwest of Pelham at 39 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 71°F; January is the coolest, at 40°F and 27°F. August is the wettest at 4.8 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 50.1 inches over 81 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 52% of the year's precipitation (26.0 of 50.1 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 46 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 77°F and 4.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 23 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 67 nights a year. That 50.1 inches is more than at 123 of the 137 New York stations used on this site (90%). Bronxville, 3 miles northwest, has its own station (Dobbs Ferry-Ardsley, NY): 51.3 inches a year, 1.2 more than here, and the same July average high, 86°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Kings Point, NY, 7 miles south, averaged 74°F in August and 38°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Kings Point tide gauge, 7 miles from Pelham, has risen 1.08 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1931 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 62 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 502 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Pelham: 225 flash floods, 225 thunderstorm wind reports, 38 floods, 12 lightning strikes and 2 heavy rain events. They killed 8 people and injured 26, and the NWS estimated $184.5 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on July 7, 2009. September has had the most flash floods, 64 of 225. Of the 798 New York cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 768 have had fewer than Pelham.

Flood insurance policyholders in Pelham's ZIP code 10803 have filed 144 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Ida in 2021: 41 claims (28% of all) and $1.3 million, then Not a named storm in 1979 with 15 and April 2007 Nor'easter in 2007 with 14. 73% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 549 New York cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 417 have fewer than Pelham.